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2011 vintage year for port wine

Portuguese wine producer Sogrape has said that 2011 was a ‘vintage’ year for its Ferreira, Offley and Sandeman Port wines and sommelier Luis Sottomayor said he could not remember a harvest with “such great structure and robustness”.

“2011 allows us to make vintage wines with unique colours, structure and complexity and I can foresee an extremely long bottle-life thanks to the excellent acidity and a very robust body” Sottomayor said.

The sommelier added that the wines are “already approved by the Douro and Porto Wine Institute. “We shall start bottling in April and the Port wine should reach the market “late May”, he said.

Sottomayor told reporters it was obvious at the “beginning of the harvest” that 2011 had everything it needed to be a vintage year by the “structure and size” of the grapes. After that it was “just a question of patience and giving the wine the right conditions to progress”.

Sogrape’s last vintage was in 2007.

This latest vintage is expected to reach its peak round about 2020.

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